ct result - 1252931

Hello jfm, Welcome to Grace. I'm very sorry to know you're hear because of progression of your cancer. Dr. West and others have created an extensive library on many common and not so common complications of cancer management and treatment. What you described is known as a mixed response and not that unusual.
I've linked you to some information found in our focused cancer info section. The first 2 were in lung cancer specifically and the 3rd though it may not relate to you, not sure, is located in the the basic cancer info section.
I hope the info is helpful. You will probably have a more specific question after doing some reading and we will be happy to field it (When I say we I usually mean a doctor, of which I'm not one. :) )

http://cancergrace.org/lung/2013/01/07/biology-of-mixed-response/

http://cancergrace.org/lung/2013/01/01/mixed-response-video/

http://cancergrace.org/cancer-101/2013/01/16/progression-rate/

My judgment would be that this is exactly what you don't want to over-react to. Finding some measurable progression when you squint isn't a clinically significant situation, except if you over-react and change treatment that was perfectly good or add a new intervention that could have adverse effects but for which there isn't a clear justification. My approach and strong recommendation in these cases is for everyone to calm down and not overtreat the scan, but rather to look at changes over time, being very judicious about whether a switch from one treatment to another, or an addition of a new intervention, is clearly justified by the magnitude of the change.

-Dr. West

I don't mean to trivialize dealing with cancer -- I just hate to see people harm themselves because they're frantic about a miniscule change. As it is, that change in size you describe isn't trivial. It's much better that it's a single node, and it's not a huge change, but that size change isn't just a millimeter or two over a year's time.

I'd really look at the algorithm I created to describe this very situation of an indolent disease process (whether because of the natural history of the disease or the effect of a generally effective cancer treatment, or both):

http://cancergrace.org/lung/2013/01/20/mf-bac-algorithm/

In it, you'll see that I generally favor consideration of a local therapy like radiation if there's a single area growing at a clinically significant rate, against a background of excellent disease control. So that's certainly an option in my mind. And the longer you follow things and see one area growing but nothing else moving, the more confident you can be that local treatment actually makes sense.

As for trauma causing isolated nodal enlargement, it's possible, but I agree it's "out there". Infection? Sure. But trauma...not very likely, and probably only plausible as a rather short term effect (days to weeks, maximum).

-Dr. West

Hi Eva ... at the risk of sounding like Pollyanna, I think it's amazing that you are ski-ing, and even more so that you have no symptoms.
However, I know what you mean about it being hard to stay calm. My whole life at the moment seems to be about holding my nerve. But I'd be pretty encouraged by the fact that the radiologist hasn't called it progression and that it's not causing you any problems. Sometimes I wish scans could be abolished so we wouldn't know this stuff.
It's great to hear that the trial has kept you stable for so long. I'm sure others on the site will be interested in MDX 1105, so I'm posting a link to what I think is the right one?
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00729664
Very best.

Agree about the sunshine! Here (UK) we've been in the snow (no ski-ing though!)
Keep us posted.